


Freeze

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Contemplation, Eridan the idiot, M/M, Shanties, freezing weather, winter in alternia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:52:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8351665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Eridan walks to Karkats hive during the winter





	

_Eridan shivered and wrapped his cape closer around him, glaring out onto the shore line. This was probably the worst mistake he had made, coming up to visit the stupid land dwellers to see how they were doing and shit. Of course unlike any logical decision, he decided to show up in the middle of winter, when everything was fucking freezing. He came from warmer waters and suddenly jumping up onto the barely thirty-degree shore was a shock to his system. He could just make his way up to Gamzee's hive but he didn’t really know how sober or not the clown was so he'd rather not do so. Next up would probably be Equius? No, no. That wouldn’t do at all, the disgusting bl00blood and his high blood fantasy's. He coughed a bit and shuddered, pulling his cape even tighter. The next troll he could think of would be Karkat, he lived closer to shore, his hive wasn’t that far away from shore, though it was farther than Gamzee's but that wasn’t entirely that bad. He trudged up the sandy slope and puffed up his collar, trying to protect from the brutal wind that blew by, kicking up sand and blasting it in the trolls face. He grumbled out a small curse and started jogging up the rest of dirt pile._

**_"_ F** **ucking hell, _"_** _he growled, kicking the back of his heel against the frozen ground, trying to get the sand off of his boots. **"**_ **S** **tupid sand. _"_**

  _He knew he was talking to himself, and frankly sounded insane; but he was alone in the vast landscape, his only comfort being the sound of heavy waves and the scarf around his neck and face, protecting himself from the blasting sand. After getting most of the sand off of his boots he began the long walk to the small troll’s hive. The small road was barren and needed to be repaved. He stared at an angle down at the frozen ground, focusing on the soft crunch of his boots against the ice laden snow. His fingers began to grow cold and numb, he tried breathing on them for a few seconds before shoving them under his armpits, trying to regain circulation and warmth into his fingers._

_Eridan had a while before he got to Karkat’s hive, possibly ten? Twenty?_ _He'd never really given much thought to how long it took to get there before. A low rumble of a hum started in his throat, a shanty to pass the time._

**_"_ ** **There was a ship that sailed..."**

_A few more steps he took, small puffs of condensation forming just past his lips._

**"All on the lowland sea..."**

_He scrunched his hands a bit more, feeling them slowly start to get warmer, tingling starting at the tips._

**"And the name of our ship..."**

**"Wwas the Golden Vanity...."**

_His lanky body convulsed for a second as he felt warmer, with the contrast of the freezing cold around him, with the quick mumble of the word 'fuck'. He pulled his hands from under his arms, rubbing them at this face as it felt cold and frozen._

**"A-and wwe feared we feared she would be taken...."**

_Eridan's lips felt so dry, his nose as well. He wouldn’t be surprised if either of them started bleeding. He licked his lips and pulled his scarf over his nose, trying to keep them from bleeding. He wouldn’t risk spilling his violet blood, no matter the preventable circumstance._

**"By the Spanish enemy..."**

_It came muffled now, turning even quieter than it already was. His brow furrowed as he thought about the line for a few seconds._

'wwhat the fuck is a spanish?' _He thought, his steps stuttering. Shaking his head as he shrugged, he continued on with the shanty he knew._

**"As she sailed in the lowland..."**

**"Lowland loww..."**

**“As she sailed in the lowland sea…”**

_He glanced up at the dark sky and sighed a bit. the moon was high in the sky still; daybreak was still far away. He started into the next verse, thinking of the warmth of his ship and the ocean around it._

**“Then up stepped our cabin boy...**

**and boldly outspoke he…**

**and he said to our captain…”**

_Eridan rubbed his shoulders a bit, pulling his cape even tighter. He wished that he had worn his thicker cape, he felt a small warmth start to form around his nose. Furrowing his brow, he pulled the scarf away slightly and recoiled at the once again sudden cold. He touched his nose and looked at it, seeing the violet on his fingers._ ‘fuck’ _he thought_ ‘I need to move faster…’

_His feet felt frozen in the wet cold seeping in through the seams of his boots. He took longer strides, moving quicker than he was a few minutes ago._

**“‘Wwhat wwould you give to me”**

**“If I would swim alongside”**

**“Of the Spanish enemy’ “**

_He shivered and thought a bit more. He was a high blood, yeah his body temperature was colder than most but he still stayed in warmer places most of the time, he wasn’t used to this kind of weather. What would Karkat think? Would he call him insane? Probably, everyone did that. He wasn’t the most intelligent troll in the terms of common sense. This entire trek was probably just stupid in general. He sighed and finished the verse of the shanty._

**“And sink her in the Lowland…”**

**“Lowland, loww…”**

**“And sink her in the Lowland, sea….”**

_He glanced over the horizon and sighed a bit, he thought he could see the top of Karkat’s hive, which was partially a relief. He hoped that the other wouldn’t mind staying for a bit as the weather cleared up and it got warmer._

**"Oh, I wwould give you silver**

**and I wwould give you gold,**

**And my own fairest daughter**

**your bonny bride shall be,**

**If you wwill swim along side**

**of the Spanish enemy**

**and sink her in the Lowland,**

**Lowland low**

**And sink her in the Lowland sea.**

_he felt a bit tired as he made his way up the final hill on the broken road. His arms and legs tight, he could feel his lips cracking and the blood running from his nose. This wasn’t good, he would need to get to the hive, his feet getting stiff and hard to walk on. The reddish tinted hive got closer as he blinked away fog in his eyes._ ‘come on, come on’ _he thought_ ‘it’s close, you can make it’.

_Fifty yards, everything’s gone quite except for the harsh sound of Eridan’s breathing, the features around the road hard to describe, blurring into a dark blob._

_Twenty yards, he felt tired. His movements more sluggish. This wasn’t good, not at all._

_Thirty feet. He was really close, not far now._

_He stood in front of Karkat’s hive, he walked down the short pathway to the others door. Fixing himself up and rearranging his scarf and cape too look a lot less disarranged than he did._

**” Okay okay, breathe…”** _he sighed, reaching his hand up to knock slowly. His knuckles rapping against the hard door. He waited about a minute as Karkat walked to the door and opened it roughly, holding a blanket around his shoulders._

 **“Who the hell is out in this fucking weather!?”** _he growled, not bothering to look at the person at the door as he did so, then noticed Eridan and looked him over._ **“What the hell Eridan, its fucking winter why are you here”**

 **“I- was just checking up on the land dwellers. But I kind of made a mistake and didn’t realize the wweather… heh”** _he twiddled his thumbs a bit and glanced at the male sheepishly._ **“Wwould you mind if I stayed over until the weather changes?”**

 **“Just fucking get in here Eridan”** _Karkat rolled his eyes and pulled his blanket a bit tighter around him. The sea dweller sighed and started to walk inside, looking down a bit. When Karkat shut the door behind him he felt the sudden rush of the others house envelope him, everything suddenly felt loose and dull, darkness edging his vision and quickly seeping up._

**“So why the hell are you actually on land during the win- Eridan??”**

_Eridan had begun to fall forward. No use of his limbs to catch him at all. And then he hit the floor, everything going black._

**“ERIDAN!?”**

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> http://www.contemplator.com/sea/vanity.html this is the entire shanty eridan sings


End file.
